Renavatio Healthcare Communications | 2017

Performance

Plans

“Renavatio plans to grow its independent alliances — we currently have four in place”
— Larry Iaquinto

Prediction

“Agencies acting like law firms — billing for hours — instead of billing for tight teams of talent will continue to falter”
— Larry Iaquinto

In an attempt to distinguish its approach and attitude from similarly sized marketing entities, Renavatio Healthcare Communications vows to go beyond the deep insights promised by competitors to deliver scientific, strategic, and creative services that are “anything but typical.”

To that end, the Newtown, Pennsylvania-based firm has trademarked “depth-defiers” as its tagline. “Digging deep is no longer enough. It creates tunnel vision,” explains co-owner and managing partner Larry Iaquinto. “We find what matters most, match talent and discipline, create solutions for a specific challenge, and then deliver.”

However, Renavatio seems to have absorbed its share of body blows in recent years. After a flat 2015, revenue fell in 2016 — from $7 million to $5.35 million, a 24% drop. At the same time, the agency says it grew its ranks by one person, to increase the total to 29 full-timers, and claims to have added two clients and several assignments without losing any.

Executives declined to address the revenue drop specifically, pointing instead to a handful of coinciding challenges, most notably the nonstop M&A musical chairs that continue to put any number of agency-client relationships in limbo.

Despite a poor 2016 on the revenue front, Iaqunito says Renavatio entered 2017 feeling optimistic about its prospects. For a firm of its size, Renavatio holds more than its share of high-profile assignments, among them work on Amgen's disease-state-awareness programs and work for Amgen, Bayer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb on compounds in the early stages of their development.

Other clients/assignments include Antares' Otrexup (for RA and psoriasis), Origin's gas plasma therapy, and PDI's Prevantics Device Swab, Prevantics Antiseptics, and Sanibrands. In 2016, the agency claimed a handful of new assignments, picking up point-of-care and pipeline work for Abbott, BTG's radiotherapy treatment TheraSphere, Halozyme's cancer drug PEGPH20, and a pair of animal-health products from Merial.

To hear Iaquinto tell it, some brand teams may be needlessly complicating their work by failing to ask the most basic questions. “We believe that driving the success of our clients' brands involves answering just one question: What matters most?” he explains. “Answer that question and you're off to a great start.”

Iaquinto adds that Renavatio has not changed its focus in response to the aforementioned market and industry challenges. That means sticking to a “four-corner structure,” built around a mix of experts in strategy, science, creative, and operations.

That recipe, the agency believes, will lead to long-term success. “With a differentiating team structure, we provide clients with the greatest possible value, assuring operational efficiency and financial transparency,” Iaquinto says.